ABSTRACT
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4.1.1 Microstereolithography Microstereolithography refers to a class of rapid prototyping technologies rst explored in the 1980s (Doraiswamy et al. 2006). e technique relies on the photocuring of a liquid prepolymer or resin according to a predetermined design to create a solid polymerized object. Typically either a pattern of light is formed by a static or dynamic masking technique and projected into a thin layer of photosensitized prepolymer (Ha et al. 2008) (projection microstereolithography), or a focused laser beam is scanned over the photosensitized polymer according to a computer design, writing out the desired image (scanning microstereolithography) (Gandhi and Deshmukh 2010). When curing has occurred, the remaining liquid prepolymer is washed out by a solvent (developer) leaving the cured pattern intact. To create multilayered objects, consecutive layers of prepolymer are added and cured before the unsolidied polymer or resin is washed out to give a three-dimensional structure.
